Sunday, October 19, 2003

Saturday Oct. 18, on my way to a meet a friend for lunch in San Luis Obispo I got a message from Kathleen one of are volunteers at Hi Mountain. She had four condors fly overhead in downtown Atascadero. 30 minutes later from a hill by my house in Paso I picked up signals for 5 condors (108, 192, 194, 208, & 209) towards Atascadero. I was able to quickly locate 5 Condors perched in some Foothill Pines off of Hwy 41 on the east side of town around noon. One of the birds with adult coloration, dark tag#56, was not one of
the birds I was picking up on my receiver. I assumed due to head and neck color this to be adult 156 and not the younger 256. Eventually the 5 birds left the perch and began soaring together joined by 2 other condors making a total of 7 huge condors over Atascadero. I’m not sure who the seventh mystery condor was. The day before from west Cuesta Ridge I had signals from 219 & 242 towards Shandon and Black Mtn.

Check out some pics of the birds in Atascadero at: http://f2.pg.photos.yahoo.com/himountainlookout3

We are now in our 17th year of service as a fully restored fire lookout, field research facility, and remote tracking station for the endangered California condor. We offer seasonal internships to college biology students, conduct local public outreach programs, and have an active volunteer base. Please explore our site to find out more about the Lookout Project and how you can get involved.